On our trip to Northeast England last year we took the opportunity to visit Beamish Open Air Museum, a place I’d always wanted to see since first I heard about it. It didn’t disappoint. It’s a wonderful nostalgia fest for those of a certain age.

I liked the transport exhibits – which are functional. Beamish occupies a large area. You could walk round it but it would take you a while.

Trams and a bus:-

More trams:-

A Porto tram (not on duty that day):-

Tram/bus stop:-

The weathervane on the stop is tram shaped:-

Railway Locomotive and Carriages:-

Dipwood Halt, A small scale railway halt:-

Turntable at Dipwood Halt:-

I’ve been waiting a couple of years to post this one. When I first photographed this building it looked like this:-

Prior to having been left more or less to rot for a good few years it had been a Vogue Furniture shop – in fact the good lady and I had bought a chair from it not long after moving in to Son of the Rock Towers. Long before that I believe it had been a garage, with those doors that opened very wide so that the cars could be driven in and out. That was many years before we moved to Kirkcaldy, though.

It’s been undergoing refurbishment recently and has now opened as an Undertaker’s – the business moving from a hundred or so yards away round a corner.

So now it’s much more spruce. This one shows a bit of the railway bridge over Nicol Street. And the clock on the wall.

You’ll notice the flagpole has gone. Quite why an undertaker’s needs a clock I don’t know. Here’s the front view. There’s a high tech steel staircase inside that you can barely see due to the reflections.

Crosbie and Matthew seem to call themslves Funeral Directors. (At least it’s not morticians.)

Two more photos – one of the dilapidated building, the other of the refurbished one – are on my flickr.